The images and video released by the CBP sparked widespread outrage and controversy about the use of the word "cages" to describe the metal enclosures.

Several media outlets and reporters — including those who were allowed to visit the facility on Sunday — explicitly said that families were being kept in cages.

"People in here are locked up in cages, essentially what look like animal kennels. I don't know any other way to describe it"
@jacobsoboroff reporting from the border detention centers https://t.co/gnwFiFFmze

Steve Doocy of President Donald Trump's favorite show, Fox & Friends, said that based on his experience in the farming community, the "chain-link fences" looked "more like a security pen" than a cage.

DOOCY: Some refer to these [child detention facilities] as cages. I'm from a farm community, I see the chain-link fences, it's more like a security pen to me.
GIDLEY: It's the law of the land... The Democrats decided to stand with people who are here illegally and unlawfully. https://t.co/SWimLtFYoV

And an editor for far-right website Breitbart News said that cages was a "misleading term" and accused the AP of using "politically-charged" words.

The @latimes, hardly a conservative outlet, visited the same Border Patrol detention facility as @AP and managed to write a detailed report without resorting to the misleading term “cages.” The @AP refuses to use the term “illegal immigrant.” They know exactly what they’re doing.

In comments reportedly made to CBS This Morning, CBP said that the term "cages" was not inaccurate, but that the agency felt "very uncomfortable" with the use of the word.

This just in from @davidbegnaud: Border Patrol has reached out to @cbsthismorning and said they are "very uncomfortable" with the use of the word cages. They say it's not inaccurate and added that they may be cages but people are not being treated like animals. https://t.co/0zSDqJszgK